Star Wars: Revelations (2023) #1
FROM THE HIGH REPUBLIC TO THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY AND BEYOND! JABBA THE HUTT! DARTH VADER! MACE WINDU! KEEVE TRENNIS, THRAWN AND MORE!
Introducing new characters, new twists and new turns across all of Marvel’s STAR WARS line!
This star-studded issue puts the pieces on the board for what’s to come in a galaxy far, far away!
Writer: Charles Soule, Marc Bernardin, Alyssa Wong, Greg Pak, Ethan Sacks, Cavan Scott, Marc Guggenheim
Penciller: Andrea Di Vito, Chriscross, David Baldeón Salvador Larroca, Will Sliney, Marika Cresta, Salva Espín
Inker: Andrea Di Vito, Chriscross, David Baldeón, Salvador Larroca, Will Sliney, Marika Cresta, Salva Espín
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg, Andrew Dalhouse, Jay David Ramos, Nolan Woodard, Chris Sotomayor, Israel Silva
Cover artist: Rod Reis
Editor: Mark Paniccia
A year ago, Marvel released the first Revelations one-shot comic which laid out in broad strokes what was going to happen over the next year of the various Star Wars titles. The art for such a major release was average, but it whet my appetite for the next year and now there’s a new Revelations that has separate stories for each new title that’s coming our way.
The first is for the regular title Star Wars flagship called “A Trick of the Mind.” It shows a lawyer with some kind of eyepatch representing Dengar in The Imperial Court of Criminal Justice. I can’t imagine much justice gets done in the Empire – Darth Vader just freakin’ kills you if you mess up, or you get sent away for a crime you didn’t commit (as shown in Andor). She puts out the highly dubious legal strategy called, essentially, the Jedi made me do it. She states that despite Dengar being highly drunk and has been known to do this sort of rampant speeder bike destruction. We are shown a picture of a High Republic/romance cover typical Jedi with flowing hair and a lightsaber stating your will is now his. The lawyer, Salli Georgio, loses the case in spectacular fashion but calls it “out of the box thinking.” The story ends with her getting a call on her bluetooth-like communicator and talking with Lando Calrissian about a case. Incidentally, Lando is being brought up on charges by the Rebel Alliance and needs a good lawyer (or as they’re called in-universe, advocates-at-large).
The next story claims it’s a Doctor Aphra story but contains no Chelli Aphra (except at the end, kinda). The 40th issue is scheduled to be her last, but I don’t know if that’s truly her final ever issue (I hope not); we’ll have to see. A bunch of hunters and killers including Aphra’s friends are telling stories of their greatest hunts, and here we’re introduced to a new armored bounty hunter named Raslin Grace who really likes to tell true stories about her exploits. She’s going after two rich criminals who ticked off Jabba the Hutt and put a bounty out on them. She tells rapidly changing narratives that could be true showing that she’s a bad-ass, but the bottom line is she’s not afraid to take a bribe from her bounties as long as she’s challenged. The two criminals talk about giving her two priceless earrings if she lets them go. The earrings show up in the next page, revealing that she took them up on their offer. The final panel shows a hologram of Aphra, the good doctor being the bounty hunter’s next challenge. Not sure what this means for the future of the Aphra title, though.
A Jango Fett story is next, which is a neat idea ahead of the Ethan Sacks series that is arriving later this year. He was the greatest bounty hunter of his day until he was killed by Mace Windu on Geonosis. Here, he’s going after a fresh bounty when he is attacked by a crazy Ray Harryhausen-looking creature, which I believe is the same one his son Boba kills on Tatooine during The Book of Boba Fett. Jango subdues the creature after his bounty monologues a bit. Spoiler alert, he lets the creature, called a K’Lor’Slug devour his bounty and walks away. The maguffin that will probably encompass his series is called The Hope of Glee Anselm (which is from the Solo movie and sounds similar to where i went to school). As Jango leaves the workshop, he’s being watched through a scope by none other than Aurra Sing (again, mentioned in Solo. Maybe we’ll see her and Tobias Beckett meet, but that doesn’t quite line up with the timeline). Aurra Sing was a huge deal during the Legends days with Quinlan Vos, but hasn’t been featured in much lately. Guess this might change.
Yes! A Mace Windu story. He has broken into an underwater prison and wants to talk to the warden. It seems the warden has been selling the keys to different prisons to the actual prisoners, and the Jedi want this to stop. Mace has his purple lightsaber and fights a green guy with a handlebar mustache and a bunch of droids. Action ensues and Mace gets his guy but then he (the green warden) disappears. Did Mace kill him? Let him go? The next thing the reader knows, Mace opens up the waterlock. Water rushes in and Mace gets gushed out into the ocean. Did this kill the warden? The other prisoners? Who knows? As a Jedi master on the council, Mace Windu always seemed to be a cool, yet arrogant warrior – he was played by Samuel L. Jackson, for Pete’s sake! Mace’s macguffin is a Master Skeleton key that opens up prison cells. Our green guy also states that his partners will pay to have him released, showing that justice in the Old Republic is bought and paid for, despite what the Jedi do and believe.
A Darth Vader story, “Tool of the Empire” is next. We start out on Mustafar – which has got to tick Vader off – where he just slaughtered corrupt Death Troopers. Vader is trying to find loyal soldiers, either droid or human, who will not betray him, even with the Emperor in command. Rebel soldiers defeat Vader’s droids but are slaughtered when he comes in. Vader and his little forensic droid buddy take over a Rebel Threepio droid and discover top secret files about super cyborg Rebels. The two droids discuss the ethics of implanting Imperial orders into the Rebel cyborgs. Vader apparently sees himself in these Imperial/Rebel cyborgs and destroys the talkative Threepio droid.
A High Republic story starring Keeve Trennis is up next, investigating a Jedi sighting in Nihil territory. She fights some Nihil soldiers and their “Storm Walker” AT-ST-like vehicle. She finds a kid under attack who has a lightsaber and is pretending to be a Jedi to give hope to his people. She’s then shot by a super-arrogant Nihil until the pretend Jedi throws her his lightsaber and she kills the Nihil. A battle cry of “WE ARE ALL THE REPUBLIC” is spoken and she speaks of hope during dark times. From the Yoda comic, we know Keeve Trennis is destined to leave the Jedi Order.
Last story. Starring old school Marvel scoundrel Rik Duel (took me a long time to equate Solo = Duel). He’s caught by yet another armored bounty hunter working for Jabba, Bane Malar, who I believe was featured on an old trading card from the Star Wars CCG. Rik is sent on a series of suicide missions by Jabba to pay off an impossible debt. Running, shooting, debasing himself to aliens and caught by space marshalls. He even manages to kill a mob boss by not giving him CPR and pulling off an accidental bank job. Rik appears to be incredibly lucky to survive, but unlucky at the same time. Despite all this, Jabba’s not knocking any of his debt and therefore, Rik has to continue to serve Jabba. Oh, and his Huttese is lousy. The last panel has Rik meet up with two more of his Marvel compatriots, Dani and Chihdo. The art on this final story is more kid-like for Hyperspace stories, so maybe that’s where we’ll see these three next.
The last few pages are Thrawn and Vader preliminary art along with cover art to forthcoming titles.
So there goes another Revelations comic. I hope they do this every time there’s a new set of comic series about to come out, because I would love to see one for a Visions series.